HELP! MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU & XP 1600 won't boot

[shyguy74]

I hope someone can help me here. I'm out of ideas.

Background: For several months, I've been runnning an ASUS A7M266 w/ Athlon 1.1Ghz that last week stopped booting. As in, everything would turn on (board, fans, HD, CD-ROMs), but I wouldn't even get to the BIOS. No video signal, optical mouse light wouldn't turn on, and no beeps from the MB whatsoever.

My first thought was it was the MB. So I went out to buy an MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU, connected everything, and powered it up. Same exact thing. Wouldn't even get to the BIOS, no video signal, etc. The good thing about the MSI board is that it has diagnostic LEDs. Well, the four LEDs are red, which according to the manual means the CPU is not installed correctly (which I'm sure it was) or it's not functioning.

Ok, fine. So I went out and bought an Athlon 1600. Installed it and powered it up. SAME FRICKING THING! Four red LEDs on, so CPU malfunctioning.

Now, either I had two bad motherboards, one DOA. Or two bad CPUs, one DOA. Or a serious case of bad-luck combo of the two. Or could it be something else, like my power supply (Enermax 350 Whisper). I had tried removing all my cards, but I still get the error LEDs, so it can't be any of my AGP/PCI cards.

Any and all suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! :/

 

[Mr.Mike]

Did you try the 1.1 in the MSI?

 

[anime]

take the whole things you have installed--
try to boot with the bare essentials- video card, 1 ram modules (make sure it's seated properly), cpu, keyboard and mouse ofcoz..
make sure jumper settings are correct (if there's any)....--also try to clear the cmos first before the first boot-up.
and see if it will boot or not

 

[shyguy74]

What's the 1.1?

Yeah, I tried booting with just the MB, CPU, 1 DIMM (Crucial 256 MB PC2100), vidcard (ATI Radeon LE), HD. In fact, I tried booting with just the MB & CPU, but I still get the 4 red D-LED lights, meaing malfunctioning CPU. I tried clearing CMOS, but that didn't help.

I thought it might've been my PSU, so I swapped the Enermax with an older PSU, but still nothing. This is getting all too frustrating :/

 

[vyrt1go]

I have the same board, and i have had no such problems with mine. I have an enermax psu as well, the 431W whisper flavor....i think your problem is the atx power connector to the mobo......if the d-leds are telling you that your proc is not installed, it isnt getting power (the proc that is).....quick fix.....go to your local geekshop, pick up a 400W psu and plug it in......leave in all of your stuff and just plug the new power supply in to the board and hard drives etc.....boot up.....if it solves your problems, sweet....take the psu back (unless it is a really high quality one, with a stable 5v rail, check it in the bios for extreme fluctuation)....and order an enermax (or other high quality one, antec perhaps) from here power supply (i suggest the 431W enermax, as you probably bought the board because of all of the extra goodies, onboard raid, usb2, etc....which all require extra power.....especially if you are running 2 hdds in raid and cdroms on the primary and secondary ide (as i am with a burner and cdrom, and 2 hdds in raid 0).......lots o power means that the psu has to work less to supply the board with good clean power......do yourself, and your now b!tchin system, a favor and drop the ~$85 to get it a good power supply ....good luck

v

 

[shyguy74]

Well, I still haven't ruled out that it is my power supply that died, but I checked on AMD.COM, and my Enermax 350W whisper is approved for all XP processors. But just to be sure, I disconnected all the harddrives from power and tried to boot. Still no go. Still the four red lights on DLED, and still no speaker beeps.

Tomorrow I'm taking the CPU/MB back to the store and see if they can determine if the parts are faulty or not. I'm out of things to try.

 

[anime]

you have any other amd board to try out your cpu on?

but my guess you got DOA board--seems to me this has become a trend lately....

 

[vyrt1go]

just because the power supply is amd approved, doesnt mean that one or more of the power leads in the adx connector hasnt gone bad.....do yourself a favor and try a new power supply before you go and take the board and processor back.....a little trouble shooting may just solve your problem, and give you a little satisfaction....the odds of your old board/proc going bad and you buying a bad board/proc are slim at best......its your stuff though, so do what makes you happy, but im fairly sure that your atx connector is underpowered/un-powered on one or more leads. good luck

v

 

[nlieber]

I'm having a similar situation with a Epox 87KA board. If you find a solution let us know! Good luck.

 

[yazz]

i bet you that motherboard is good. you might of flexed the board or the board is not grounded properly... have you tried clearing the cmos like this: turn on the system and you see the four red lights then hold down the power button till the board shuts off. then move the clear CMOS jumper into position. then turn off the power switch on the power supply and pull out the plug that goes into the power supply. let the board sit like that for at least 10 seconds. remove the video card and ram and reseat them. then put the power cord back into the power supply and turn the power supply switch to ON. then move the CMOS clear jumper back into the normal position. and then try to power the system back on with the power button. and make sure that you only have the CPU, video and ram plugged into the board when you fire everything backup... if that does not work, try another piece of DDR RAM and video card and try posting the motherboard outside of the case before coming to the conclusion that the board is dead.
have fun...

 

[shyguy74]

WHOO!

I took my non-working MB/CPU back to the store for the techie guy to look at, and after testing all sorts of combos of CPUs and MBs, he determined it was a dead MB (my CPU would work in another MB but another CPU wouldn't work on my MB). So I took home the working motherboard and CPU.

Ok, so now that begs the question... did I just have incredibly bad luck and receive an MB that was DOA? Or did I somehow destroy it when I plugged it in? Could my power supply (Enermax 350W) or any of my add-on cards (ATI Radeon, 3Com 10/100, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Crucial DDR SDRAM) have caused the MSI to short out? I mean, it seems a tad coincidental that my previous system died, and when I bought a new MB/CPU, that was also dead. Oh btw, I had initially inserted my old CPU into my new MB, and if the old CPU was dead, could that have killed the MB?

I have yet to plug the new MB/CPU in because I want to be as sure as possible that I somehow won't kill this board, given that I could've possibly killed the last board.